"My child... what did you say?"
The loving, maternal voice faltered, and Akabane Tsubaki immediately detached from that space.
In an extremely brief instant, the voice turned to grief and indignation.
"No! You cannot do this... No!"
Reality and illusion inverted in an instant.
Akabane Tsubaki, her consciousness having returned, took a deep breath.
Celine beside her gave a strange, cackling laugh and stepped forward, giving her a hug.
"How do you feel right now?"
"Mother's warmth is something this world has never given us."
"We are family."
"Family," Akabane Tsubaki murmured.
A cold sensation was drawn from Celine's body.
The girl's eyes widened, her pupils filled with disbelief.
She reached a hand toward the back of her neck, but her body went limp and she collapsed uncontrollably to the ground.
The Spider-Gu Fang had stabbed directly into the back of her neck, severing her spine.
A strong sense of suffocation surged within her; she opened her mouth to speak, but blood foam kept pouring into her throat.
After struggling for a time, Celine's breathing gradually weakened as she stared with fixed eyes.
Akabane Tsubaki looked down at Celine from above until Celine became completely motionless.
Akabane Tsubaki said nothing as she used the Spider-Gu Fang to force open the back of the other's neck.
She did not find the presence of a Chang, which meant Celine was not a Chang-ghost, but a member of the Syndicate.
The consciousnesses of these Syndicate members had once been directly connected to the Eight-Spider Hive Mother.
Yet, she had not felt anything unusual in that space.
Rather, aside from that eerie sense of warmth and happiness, she had not developed any worship for the Eight-Spider Hive Mother, nor did she fear that strange truth.
She was still able to maintain rational thought.
Normally, even for powerful grade 4 or grade 5 fixers who communicated with the mystery domain, their sanity would be more or less affected when facing an existence of this level.
But she was not.
She simply felt that all of this was very familiar.
Akabane Tsubaki shook her head; for her, none of this mattered anymore.
Even though she had left that space, she knew the exact locations of every Syndicate member within a twenty-kilometer radius.
She only needed to pay a small price to find them.
Before dawn broke tonight, the hunt had only just begun for her.
Akabane Tsubaki let out a soft breath as the Chang crawled within her body.
It eventually yielded to her, slowly curling up behind her spine, becoming an organ similar to a neural center.
It began to coordinate the various parts of her body for her, strengthening her neural reflexes and her perception of the environment.
A cold, sharp pain invaded from her limbs.
Akabane Tsubaki could not help but close her eyes slightly and let out a muffled groan.
Cold rain fell from the sky, tracing the contours of her face.
The compound eyes in her right eye were like bubbles gathering together; small bubbles merged into large ones, finally becoming three pairs of dark pupils.
They were distributed in sequence, automatically adapting and focusing.
The world became clearer in her eyes, and the falling raindrops were distinctly visible.
Fine scales sprouted on her left arm, slowly clicking into place; her five claws became sharp, her joints curved backward, and her skin glinted with the cold light of iron.
Akabane Tsubaki felt her body slowly moving toward the state of the zerg.
She felt a faint excitement; rather than evolution, this was a call of the bloodline.
The bloodline genes that had been dormant in her body for so long were awakening, yet their goal was to hunt the zerg who shared her origin.
She was supposed to be this powerful; the Chang had merely awakened her.
The commotion attracted nearby predators.
Though Celine had been killed, they showed no grief or indignation; instead, they prostrated themselves at Akabane Tsubaki's feet.
It was not only because they felt the mother's aura but more because they submitted to the pressure from a superior being emanating from the girl.
Akabane Tsubaki did not know what was happening to her, but she felt a heartfelt joy from this submission.
She was not joyful because she was a superior being; she was joyful because she could freely hunt the lives of these inferior zerg.
She was a solitary scourge, needing no warmth from a swarm.
Her purpose in dominating and utilizing these zerg was solely to hunt more of their kind.
Akabane Tsubaki did not kill them.
From her mouth came the hissing sound of a spider; the hiss was low but possessed immense penetrating power.
Predators within several kilometers felt her call.
They abandoned their siege of the soldiers and converged toward the same direction.
"What is happening?" a surviving soldier murmured, deeply shocked by the scene before him.
Tens of thousands of predators stopped all actions, even though flesh and blood were right before their fangs.
They moved toward the same direction; those predators with missing limbs or unable to move prostrated themselves on the ground.
They bowed toward the distance as if performing an ancient and fresh ritual.
More and more soldiers stood up, surrounded by the corpses of countless comrades.
They all looked in the same direction.
In the headquarters behind them, the monitoring equipment sounded a frantic alarm.
All the data jumping higher indicated that a high-tier zerg had been born not long ago.
All of these anomalies were caused by her.
"Family head, what should we do?" a confidant from the camp came to Snow Crow Ji's side and asked.
The hazard of a high-tier zerg was comparable to a nightmare-level urban legend.
Any single high-tier zerg possessed the ability to destroy a settlement.
Furthermore, they could expand their own subordinate clan by evolving themselves, becoming a queen's guard no less powerful than prism grade.
The danger of a high-tier zerg appearing on the battlefield outside the city was self-evident.
At such a time, Snow Crow Ji should have taken action to suppress it with swift and decisive means, or dispatched an entire heavy brigade.
But the problem was...
This high-tier zerg was Akabane Tsubaki.
"Request reinforcements from the Main House with a top-level secret order," Snow Crow Ji said with sunken eyes.
"Have the nearby stationed troops rush here at top speed; the battlefield must be sealed off before dawn."
"Not a single piece of news must be allowed to leak; I will bear any responsibility."
"If necessary, I will kill her with my own hands."
At a certain position on the battlefield, countless soldiers were still holding their ground.
They had been deployed to cover the rear for the retreating teams.
Everyone was on high alert, even though they knew they might not survive the upcoming bloody battle.
Tanks and cannons formed a line behind them, a murderous atmosphere spreading through the wall of steel.
A lieutenant stood behind a mortar.
The Sting-Thunder guided missiles launched earlier had accurately hit a zerg nest and arsenal fifty-three kilometers away.
Those zerg moved slowly on the ground, but they possessed developed underground transport pipes.
Inside the pipes, their speed exceeded five hundred kilometers per hour, allowing them to reach the front battlefield in less than ten minutes.
In the most intense battles, the average time for an inferior zerg from birth to transport to the battlefield and then being shredded by shells was not even half an hour.
"Those damn zerg are back! Open fire!"
Another row of dark zerg shadows appeared in the distance.
Artillery fire interlaced above the battlefield.
Several zerg Sting-Thunder bombers flew overhead at Mach 3, dropping several gas bombs filled with biological toxins.
The toxic mist instantly spread across the position.
The moment the soldiers inhaled the gas, their bodies became paralyzed and began to ulcerate.
Their flesh became dry like a rapidly rotting apple, leaking pus and poisonous water as they died in agonizing pain.
"Fuck!"
Seeing a comrade he had known for many years die in agony, a soldier's eyes turned red.
He suddenly stood up, aiming a Snake-Fire rocket launcher at a distant Toxic Ravager Chariot and blowing it into countless chunks of flesh.
He himself was hit in the shoulder by a poison sting, rotting until he died.
Inferior zerg workers screeched as they pounced; the firepower of heavy weapons picked them off quickly.
Gun flames erupted from the chambers, roasting the air near the gas ports.
A metal storm raged, making everything within range of the fire a forbidden zone for life.
The soldier sitting at the controls roared as he operated the machine gun, shredding each pouncing worker into bloody chunks.
A roar came from the distance.
A tall chariot reached out, grabbing many low-tier zerg workers, including predators, sentinels, and stingers, and kneading them into a sarcoma.
Then it took a throwing stance.
"It's a chariot!" someone shouted.
"Prepare for impact!"
As the sarcoma slammed directly into the line and exploded, corrosive pus instantly melted a machine gun tower into molten iron.
Nearby soldiers were also caught by the corrosive liquid, melting on the spot.
The workers swarmed out, attacking soldiers who had not yet had time to prepare.
Even a Decapitator crawled out of an incubation sac, letting out a roar toward the sky.
It charged straight toward the lieutenant's direction.
Any soldiers who tried to block its path were beheaded by its sharp mantis blades.
Chaos broke out at the rear of the position for a time; the human side retreated step by step, and the constructed defense line showed signs of collapse.
The zerg continuously ate away at the edges of the line; the soldiers in front retreated, and seeing this, the soldiers in the rear also wavered.
Soldiers died one after another every second.
The situation of impending collapse evolved toward total breakdown when the line was torn open by the zerg and countless workers poured in.
Seeing the Decapitator charging straight at him, the lieutenant cursed and retreated quickly.
He left several soldiers to help him block the monster and soon escaped it, hurrying back to the command tent.
He did not pack the important documents on the table, nor did he issue orders to everyone.
Instead, his expression became leisurely as he scanned the soldiers still fighting to the death on the front line with a mocking gaze.
Yes, he was also a member of the Syndicate.
The zerg had long known the defense arrangements on their side; they were perfectly clear about the tactical layout.
They knew where the weakest points were for easy breakthroughs and the distribution of key members for targeted raids.
The man knew perfectly well that this battle could not be won from the start.
Those stupid soldiers were merely making a final struggle before their deaths.
Suddenly, a commotion came from outside the tent, causing the lieutenant to freeze.
He hurried out of the tent only to find the soldiers who were just fighting to the death with the zerg had simultaneously lowered their weapons with dazed looks.
"They are..." a soldier murmured, "killing each other?"
Hearing this, the lieutenant's body trembled; his gaze sank as he stepped forward.
Fixing his eyes, he saw another army of zerg appearing from the side at some unknown time, pouncing into the swarm.
The two sides began to slaughter each other.
This zerg army was far more brutal and ferocious than the zerg besieging the line.
Even if their bodies were pierced or their limbs torn, they would open their mouths wide and tear a piece of flesh from their kin.
The bewildered zerg soldiers had their offensive rhythm disrupted by this sudden scene.
The chaotic and crazed pheromones on those zerg were unlike anything they had ever seen.
The twisted hatred was like evil ghosts crawling out of hell.
The screeching, biting, and tearing between those who were clearly companions made them feel fear.
The commander of the invading zerg army was found by these crazed predators.
It let out a shrill screech as its limbs were torn off from four directions by force; its flesh was consumed, and even its head was ripped away.
The sky was dyed blood-red.
"Quick, fire!" Fear prompted a soldier to shout. "These bugs have gone crazy."
"Wait!" A veteran more familiar with zerg habits sensed something unusual and shouted out.
His resonant voice stopped the crowd that was about to fire.
"Look, these bugs have no intention of attacking us."
This statement caused a commotion among the people present.
Someone even gathered their courage to approach the crazed zerg and saw they did not attack, only pouncing on their kin ahead.
Seeing this, a strong sense of unease grew within the lieutenant.
He knew very well that these inferior zerg had no consciousness of their own and were driven by desire.
The only possible reason for such an anomaly was that they were being controlled by a higher-tier zerg from behind.
Then, why would the high-tier zerg behind them attack their own kind, and why specifically choose his direction to attack?
The deeper he thought, the more the lieutenant felt a chill like a steel knife cutting his skin and seeping into his spine.
That they acted so brutally and bloodthirstily likely had everything to do with the high-tier zerg behind them.
Various anxieties stacked together, prompting the lieutenant to shout:
"What are you still hesitating for? Take this chance and fire at those zerg!"
"Clear them all out in one wave!"
"But..." someone said with a difficult expression.
"There are no buts! Don't forget they are bugs!"
"How many of our comrades died under their claws? As long as they are bugs, they are our enemies."
"If you don't act now, are you waiting for them to turn around and attack us?"
"Yes!" the soldiers responded quickly, turning their guns to aim at the zerg.
Soon, shells were fired from the barrels, but they did not land among the zerg.
Instead, they were blocked by a figure.
Seeing that slender figure walking out of the smoke and dust, the unease in the lieutenant's heart climbed to the peak.
Alarm bells rang frantically, and a sudden fear exploded in his mind.
The smoke cleared, and upon seeing the girl's face, the pupils of countless people shrank.
Someone blurted out:
"Little family head... Your Highness?"
At this moment, the girl had clearly become a monster.
Beneath her waist was a massive, not yet fully formed spider abdomen.
Inside the abdomen, the skeletal frame was exposed, and shape-shifting bugs screeched and danced above it.
Several pairs of thick spider legs stabbed out from both sides of the abdomen, their edges glinting with a metallic cold light.
The overall structure was long on the left and short on the right, causing her body to tilt to one side in a relatively eerie posture.
Akabane Tsubaki's skin was transparently white, and her eyes trembled as they closed.
Fluctuating scales were breathing, emitting a dark red mist.
That was her symbiotic skin, a product similar to a divine endowment combined with a combat suit and flesh, covering her entire body in a complete form.
The dark red mist began to spread, and behind this mist, dark pupils opened.
The girl's overall form was so eerie and terrifying, yet it gave people a sense of demonic beauty.
It made one instinctively want to understand this beautiful existence more deeply.
There was no doubt about it.
At this moment, what stood before these soldiers was a genuine high-tier zerg.
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